The Top Bunk Predicament
by luvme123
Summary: Giving the top bunk to an insomniac was a mistake. Rintori fluff.


Rin sighs silently as another movement above him shifts the bunk again.

Nitori was going through another episode. His tossing and turning wasn't helping him sleep, and it certainly wasn't allowing Rin to sleep. He knew better than to yell at him, he couldn't help it, so he tried to tough it out as much as he could.

_But it was every damn night. _

He'd had a week - a week of peaceful, serene, uninterrupted sleep - before Nitori started again. He couldn't sleep. Again. Of course, Rin _had_ to have the bottom bunk.

The shifting of the bed wasn't that bad, Rin could deal with it, but it was everything else. It was the fact that it was every night, the moving, the shifting...the nightly activities, late night studying that - for some reason - required the _brightest fucking light_, the typing on his laptop at two a.m..

He got less sleep than damn Nitori.

He couldn't take it. "Nitori," He whispers sharply into the dark, hoping the younger boy would respond.

"Y-yes?" Came the quiet response.

"Your moving is keeping me up, and I know you can't help it, but could you _please_ just...keep it down? I have to meet Haru and everyone tomorrow."

"O-of course, senpai." Nitori stutters. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

It doesn't stop.

Nitori had struggled with insomnia since he arrived at Samezuka, reasons unbeknownst to even him, and it kept him awake most nights. There were times sometimes where he'd get no sleep for a week, maybe more, and then sleep every night for a month. Unfortunately for Rin, this was not one of those times. Nitori had given him a week of sleep before becoming the restless, ever-tired insomniac he was.

Rin was about to go insane. But first, sleep. He could feel the beginnings of sleep tugging at his eyelids, so he lets them droop closed, ready for his dreams to take him away when...

Another shift, a tired yawn, and a sniff pull Rin out of his fit of unconsciousness and he can't hold back his groan. _Damn. So close. _

"S-senpai?"

"Yes, Nitori?" Rin, despite his annoyance with the younger boy, can't hold back his grin when the quiet voice interrupts the still air. A small grey head peeks over the top bunk in the darkness and Rin jumps. He wasn't expecting that.

"Do you want a new roommate?"

"Huh?"

"Well, it's just- Y-you seem angry that I can't sleep, and you've said before that I keep you up at night with all my moving...I wouldn't be mad if you wanted to switch rooms."

"Nitori are you crazy-"

"No. It's just that..."

"It's just nothing. I'm completely fine with being up all hours of the night, as long as it isn't affecting either of our swimming. Got it? I'm not going to switch rooms." Rin doesn't know what's possessing him to say this; he'd kill to have a different roommate.

The thankful smile on Nitori's face changes his previous thoughs immediately. _I guess I could stay..._

"Thank you, senpai. I promise I'll try to get to sleep tonight, so you can too!"

Rin stays silent as Nitori's head disappears.

"...Nitori?"

"Yes senpai?"

"Come down here."

"What?.."

"Your tossing and turning isn't going to stop, but at least if you're down here the bunk won't move as much."

"O-ok..." Rin sees Nitori's shadow, darker against the blackness of the room, climb down the ladder cautiously and sit on the edge of the bunk. Rin pulls out his covers and Nitori, clutching a pillow tightly, crawls under. He makes sure to stay a few inches away from Rin, so it wasn't weird, but close enough to feel the warmth from the other's body radiate onto any surface that would take it.

He feels serene as he watches Rin shut his eyes with a tired sigh. Nitori shifts to his side, so his back faced the other, and lets out a sigh himself as his own eyes shut. The warmth running off Rin steadies Nitori's heartbeat and he feels himself drifting off.

_Weird..._ Nitori thinks to himself, _I don't think I was so tired just a minute ago..._

Then it hits him.

Why he hadn't been able to sleep, why the sleeping pills the doctor gives him never work, why _this_ was happening right now. He'd figured it out.

"Senpai." He whispers.

"What now?" Rin groans, shoving his face into his pillow.

"I figured out why I can't sleep."

"Really?" Rin's head rises slowly, his eyes opening expectantly. "And why can't you sleep?"

"My- my home, it's very small...I had to share a room with three other brothers, and a bed with my younger brother; the beds were bunk beds, so we had our own space, but my brother always had nightmares, so I slept in his bunk with him," Nitori giggles fondly as he turns to face his senpai, "I guess I'm just not used to sleeping alone."

Rin groans, but there's a grin on his face. "Aww, you idiot! If that's the problem, then you're staying down here _every_ night! I need my damn sleep!"

Nitori giggles again. "Sorry, senpai."

"It's ok, Ai."

Nitori's ears perk up at that. Rin had called him Ai. He was lying with Rin_ in the same bed._ He can't hold it in anymore-

Rin's startled, but not too displeased, when a quick kiss is planted on his cheek.

"Sorry!" Nitori is instantly ashamed, hiding his flushed face behind his hands, apologies flying from his lips. _The lips that just kissed you,_ Rin can't help but think as he pulls Nitori's hands away from his face. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I-I-"

"Ai," Rin's voice cuts through Nitori's stuttered out apologies, and he quiets himself immediately. "I don't care what just happened, or why you did it; I just want you to do that every night before bed, so I can do it every morning when we wake up. Ok?"

"O-ok."

"Good." Rin kisses Nitori lightly on the lips, and pulls him close before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. He had to admit, sleeping with someone on his side...

It was more than comfortable.

"Good night, Matsuoka senpai."

"Night, Ai."


End file.
